The economic recovery from the recession that officially ended in 2009 has been extremely disappointing for American consumers. But for business, it has been the best recovery in decades…

The governmentís estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product last week indicated the overall economy was only 8.3 percent higher than it was in the second quarter of 2009, the quarter the recession ended. That is significantly weaker than the recoveries that followed the recessions that ended in 1982, 1991 or 2001.